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Sources of Research for Foreign Relations

1. Diplomatic history- driven by written documents, anything placed in presidential library.
2. Focus on state to state relationships or internal relations within a state.
3. Can also use other secondary sources in the absence of written documents.
4. Occasionally message can be changed when sent through intermediaries.
5. There are also some nongovernmental entities that influence state matters (i.e. Amnesty International.

Theories of International Relations: REALISM

States, like humans try to maximize their power as much as possible to get what they want.

Theories of International Relations: COSMOPOLITINISM

Idea that every human is essentially a part of a larger whole, and that they can work together.

Theories of International Relations: BALANCE OF POWER

Absorbing other states, to balance out power. Also alliances to counteract other threats. Attempting to ensure that no nation or ideology has too much power.

Influences of Foreign Policy: BUREACRATIC POLITICS

Disputes between or within governments can influence policy. (i.e. Air Force can be ready and willing to begin war with Iran, however, the Army would stop the possibility because they are already overdrawn in Iraqi War).

Influences of Foreign Policy: PSYCHOLOGY

It is possible to achieve goals in diplomacy by creating certain impressions (i.e. "psych out" others as Nixon attempted with Vietnameese bombing campaign). Creating image of a leader or state to influence another nation. Especially affective on personal level.

Influences of Foreign Policy: NATIONAL SECURITY

States act in ways they believe neccessary to protect themselves. Motivated to protect themselves from perceived threat, which can result in mistakes and paranoia, or Blowback. Some of our greatest allies are those which we fear the most.

Influences of Foreign Policy: CORPORATISM

The idea that elites from the public and private sector agree to cooperate in order to ensure political stability and economic viability.

WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY

Take on Corporatism. Marxist analysis of history; that all countires exist in an inter-related economic system with three levels (core, semi-core, and periphery) and nations behave according to their position in this heirarchy.
1. Core Nations- Most powerful, industrialized nations with dominant financial sectors.
2. Semi-Core- Secondary, moderatly industrialized and financially stable nation.
3. Periphery Nation- Poor, nearly powerless agriculturally based economy.

Hierarchy of World Systems Theory

Core nations- Seek to maintain their control over lesser levels, which fuel their success.
Semi-Core Nations- Want to obtain further power in financial sector, become a leader nation, move up by virtue of exploitation of other semi-cores and peripheries.
Periphery Nation- Work to fuel the other higher nations, have no control of their own destiny due to lack of financial foundation, control, and stability. (i.e. 18th century British colony).

Influences of Foreign Policy: Dependency Theory

States that poor countries are poor because colonizers created a dependent relationship revolving around the neccessity of colonizer's involvement for survival. Marx argues that poor countries are not particularly poor on their own accord, rather because of the dominance and exploitation of the colonizers upon them.

Influences of Foreign Policy: Memory and Understanding

How people remember historical events, and move forward. For example, many people's outlook upon correct foreign policies during the cold war were the result of what they experienced during WWII.

Chomsky's Assumption About Israeli and Palestinian Conflict

The state of Israel is seperate and unique from Jewish people. The fate of Jewish people does not rest with that of Israel, and vice versa.

Chomsky's Assumption About Israeli and Palestinian Conflict

Palestinians, as well as Israelis, are human beings. Rhetoric heavily used to influence viewpoint of Palestinians as vicious terrorists and Israeli violence as being a just cause. Hypocracy of viewing Israel as a dignified democracy.

Chomsky's Assumption About Israeli and Palestinian Conflict

The current crisis in Israel is a contemporary political and social problem. Believes the problem has nothin to do with history. Believes that is a social and political problem, with a social and political solution.

Chomsky's Assumption About Israeli and Palestinian Conflict

International law and institutions, if they must exist, should constrain every nation equally. Chomsky is an anarchist, does not believe in the need for nations. Argues that the greatest violations are carried out by US and Israeli, through their hypocracy.

Chomsky's Assumption About Israeli and Palestinian Conflict

The people in the US do not understand the crisis, but could if they had all the relevant information. Problem with US population is not reflexive, blind, support for Israel, rather that they are uninformed. American media is biased toward Israel. Most US support has nothing to do with support for the Jews themselves.

Yalta Conference

Febuary 4-11, 1945 (key in terms of post-war planning and locus
for the eventual deterioration of relationship between the Soviet Union and U.S./Great Britain)

March 1946

Winston Churchill delivers “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri

January 3, 1947

The NAACP releases its annual report regarding conditions for African
Americans; lynchings have become so commonplace in the immediate aftermath of World War II
that the report said the year 1946 was “one of the grimmest years in the history of the
[organization];” especially targeted for violence are Black soldiers returning home from active
duty.

March 1947

Announcement of the “Truman Doctrine” and provision of $400 million of aid to
Greece and Turkey

June 1947

Announcement of the “Marshall Plan” for economic recovery of Western Europe

August 1947

India obtains its independence from Great Britain

Febuary 1948

Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia

Shelley v. Kraemer

May 1948--decided by U.S. Supreme Court (ruling declares unconstitutional
the use of “racially restrictive covenants” in the sale of houses; one of the first cases in which the
Justice Department argued that racial discrimination in America hampered the nation’s
diplomacy)

June 1948

Berlin Blockade begins; U.S. and British planes airlift 1.5 million tons of supplies to
West Berlin to prevent capitulation and surrender of entire city to Communists

Truman issues Executive Order #9981

July 1948--to end racial segregation in
the U.S. Armed Forces (within a few days of the E.O., Army staff officers [on condition of anonymity] assert that #9981 does not explicitly forbid segregation; in addition, Army Chief of
Staff, General Omar Bradley says that desegregation will come to the Army when it becomes a
fact of life in America)

April 1949

NATO treaty signed by all 12 original members, including U.S. and Great Britain

April 7, 1950--NSC 68 laid out a comprehensive national security strategy to protect the U.S. from the threat posed by the Soviet Union. NSC 68 described the world as divided in two, with one part guided by the United States and the other by the Soviets.

June 1950

Korean War begins

April 1953

Allen Dulles commits $1 million to “Operation Ajax,” a CIA covert operation
executed with help from Britain’s MI6 aimed at toppling the leadership of Dr. Mohammed
Mossaddegh in Iran; in August, Dr. Mossaddegh was deposed and arrested, with Shah Reza
Pahlavi taking control of the country and instituting a violent and brutal dictatorship that would
last for more than a quarter century

June 1953

The Rosenbergs are executed for treason (a scientist husband and wife who were
arrested, tried, and convicted for passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union)

July 1953

Korean War ends

March 1954

Soviet Union establishes the KGB and continues a tradition of surveillance,
intimidation, and murder that began as Stalin rose to power in the immediate aftermath of theBolshevik Revolution

May 17, 1954

Brown v. Board of Education decided by the U.S. Supreme Court; in the
“declarative phase” of the case, the Court rules that state-sponsored, racially segregated schoolsviolated the Constitution

June 1954

CIA covert operation “PB Success” overthrows the democratically elected
government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala; in papers released by the CIA under a FOIA
request, there is an instructional guide on political assassinations which states “killing a political
leader whose burgeoning career is a clear and present danger to the cause of freedom may be held
necessary.” The coup results in a series of military dictatorships and ended what Guatemalans
had referred to as “Ten Years of Springtime.”

July 1954

In April, a global summit in Geneva, Switzerland convenes to discuss a number of
issues related to global economic and political developments; as the Vietnamese defeat of the
French at Battle of Dien Bein Phu, the focus of the meeting shifts toward establishing a truce in Indochina; at this meeting, the nation of Vietnam is temporarily divided at the 17 parallel th l to allow for gradual French withdrawal and the parties [U.S., French, Vietnamese, and Soviets, among others] agree that elections will be held to determine the fate of the entire nation

April 1955

Five newly independent countries - Burma, Ceylon [now known as “Sri Lanka”],
Indonesia, India, and Pakistan - had planned to convene a conference for African, Asian, and Middle Eastern states who were unwilling to be dominated by either the U.S. or the Soviet
Union; after Egypt joined as a sponsor, the “Bandung Conference” hosted delegates from 29 countries, representing over half the world’s population, who sought an alternative to the tension of the bi-polar Cold War struggle; the idea of [and phrase] “Third World” emerges from this